Ken’s curiosity about “the story of what moments or events led you to Christianity”

Ken is one of those friends you make in life that just sticks. I haven’t heard anything from Ken (or him from me) since we were marines in the ’80s. He is now in New Mexico. We recently reconnected via the web and were interested in who each of us have become in the last couple of decades. I sent this blog address and a brief description of life with Karla (http://www.marinekar.blogspot.com/) in reply. He responded with starting his own blog http://theluskreport.com/ . He also shared that he was “curious about the story of what moments or events led you to Christianity”. Friends are awesome. No fears, just ask. Ok, friend, here is the straight up account as I remember it. I will write it in a series to keep it in short, readable bits.

It starts with a simple observation. Life hurts. It hurts because we sense it should be beautiful and wonderful, and in fleeting moments it is more beautiful than we can describe. But those moments only make the other moments, moments of frustration, misunderstanding, emotional and physical pain, tedium, anxiety and general dissatisfaction so much more painful. Why do we have such a longing for beauty and such a hard time satisfying that longing?

This question, along with many others, set me searching. Ken, when you met me I was testing a possible answer. “We long for beauty because we were gullible to stories told by wishful thinking people.” I went into the USMC in part because I believed life had no meaning and nothing really mattered. Beauty had ceased to be my hope. I was willing to just try living on adrenaline. It didn’t work. The question of beauty and belonging would not leave me alone.